Ring of Fire
by NotOneLineFF
Summary: Chloe contemplates her relationship with Lucifer in Rome, with Trixie and gelato for company. A small sequel to my story "I Still Miss Someone".


"Mommy, where's your ring?"

The sound of her daughter's voice was jarring and uninvited, breaking through the whirlwind of chaotic thoughts that had once again consumed Chloe's mind. Consumed, unlike the long forgotten melted gelato in front of her. Hurriedly, she withdrew her hands from the top of the table, already knowing what had attracted Trixie's attention to the missing piece of jewellery. Nervously rubbing the skin of her ring finger had become a habit since she left Los Angeles, to the point where it was often red and sore by the end of the day. It had only sat on her finger for a few days, but she could still feel the ghost of it.

If she were honest with herself, taking off her wedding ring had bothered her less than this.

"I just didn't feel like wearing it today, Monkey, that's all."

Not feeling like wearing it was an understatement. She'd ripped it off the second she set foot on the plane. Until that moment, it had been a symbol of everything that had been between her and Lucifer, and everything that was to come. Now, the mere thought if it burned her. It was a symbol born of lies, of secrets kept and trust broken. It wasn't the promise of love as she'd hoped, but merely a way of claiming her as his.

The Devil's mark, in the form of a ring willing accepted and worn.

And yet she missed it. She missed _him_.

"Why? You said Lucifer gave it to you."

Lucifer had given her many things. Everything but the proof he knew she would need to believe him. Father Kinley claimed it was all part of some grand manipulation, but to what end, he didn't know. And despite all her efforts, her investigations had made things no clearer either. What did the Devil want with someone like her? She wasn't special, she wasn't important. It wasn't as if she had connections or power in any way. And yet he'd spent the last three years by her side.

The only person who could explain his actions was him, and he was the only person she couldn't, or rather wouldn't, ask.

She was too scared of the answers he might give.

"You're right, he did. I… I just can't wear it right now. It doesn't feel right."

She was lying, both to herself and to Trixie. Nothing had ever felt so right than slipping that ring onto her finger, and the kiss she shared with Lucifer afterwards. It was like finding a piece of herself that she'd never even known was missing. He held her afterwards until the sun rose high in the sky, never once asking for anything more. Finally, she had thought, they were on the same page. Finally, they had a chance to be together.

And then Charlotte happened. And Pierce. And it all went to hell.

"But you'll put it on again soon?"

What answer could she give, when she had no idea? The prospect of going back to her life loomed on the horizon, like an ever approaching nightmare. She couldn't hide out in Europe forever. And even if she could, she knew well enough that if Maze wanted to find her, she would. In fact, she was surprised Lucifer hadn't sent her already. His text messages asking when she would be returning and if they were okay had come fast and furious at first, but this last week, they'd been few and far between. Almost as if he was losing hope.

Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe if he gave up on her, she wouldn't have the opportunity to do what the Church wanted her to. It would be out of her hands.

She knew in her heart that he wouldn't though. As long as she existed in this world, Lucifer would never give up on her.

"Maybe."

Sighing, she tried to summon up a comforting smile. The sadness that remained in her daughter's eyes though spoke volumes about how successful that was.

"Trixie, babe, I know this is hard to understand… but Lucifer, well, he told me something… something about him I didn't know… and things are different now."

The last thing she expected right then was the blinding grin that broke out across Trixie's face.

"He showed you!"

Terror gripped Chloe's heart; the same kind of terror that had seen her back away from the creature in the loft that day, the one that looked at her with concern upon its twisted features as it moved towards her. That fear hadn't left as her colleagues whisked her away, leaving her shaking and unable to form words for hours. _It's all true._ That was all she could think, over and over, as memories of the Devil tortured her mind.

The thought that her daughter had been through the same thing was horrifying beyond belief.

"Trixie..."

"He did, didn't he? He showed you! Isn't it cool, Mommy? I mean, not as cool as Maze's face, but—"

"Maze's face… Trixie, what exactly did you see?"

She hated how weak her voice sounded, the way it trembled as she asked the question she was convinced she already knew the answer to. The real question though was _why? _Why would Lucifer show Trixie, of all people, what he truly was? Another wave of fear hit her as she realised that perhaps none of this was about her after all. Had the Devil been after her daughter all along?

Her daughter, who was still happily chattering away as if all of this was normal. As if her mother hadn't allowed the source of all that was evil in this world to infect their lives.

"He has red eyes! They were scary at first, but then the bad man was there, and they didn't seem so scary after all."

Trixie paused for a moment, then her grin only seemed to widen. "Do you think Lucifer can teach _me_ how to make my eyes go red?"

Chloe's head was reeling. _Bad man_. Who was the bad man? Shouldn't Lucifer be the bad man, especially in the eyes of a child? Except… she'd never seen him treat Trixie badly in any way. If anything, he had spent most of their relationship acting as if _she_ were the one who could do something bad to him at any moment. Sometimes Chloe swore she was going to create a swear jar all of his own, simply for every time she had to hear him complain about sticky fingers.

A thought struck her, as she reached across the table and took her daughter's hand.

"Monkey… the bad man… do you mean Malcolm?"

That day in the warehouse was something they tried not to talk about. It had proved the most effective with dealing with Trixie's nightmares, after she point blank refused to talk to the child psychologist they'd taken her to. Well, that and the phone her grandmother had not so surreptitiously bought her. When Chloe discovered it, she found text after text to both Lucifer and Maze at all hours of the night, most of which were answered immediately, with promises of protection and words of comfort. Or in Lucifer's case, emojis.

It was one of the many things about all of this that kept tearing her apart inside.

Trixie nodded, and squeezed her mother's hand tightly.

"But Lucifer saved us. He died, and then he woke up again. And then he saved us."

She watched as her monkey dropped her eyes to the table, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth a little, before looking earnestly back up at her.

"Everybody says the Devil is bad, but if he was, why would he do that?"

Why indeed? Why did Lucifer do any of the things he did? And why was he even _here_? She had so many questions, and Father Kinley had so few of the answers. And the one person who could tell her, was the same person who the church told her would give her nothing but lies, Yet every fibre of her being rebelled against that idea. Lucifer didn't lie. That had been true from the very moment she met him, when he first told her who he was. Sure, he withheld information and danced around the facts where he could, but he never outright lied.

Especially not to her.

But he hadn't told her the truths she needed him to either.

"I don't know, Monkey."

Without thinking, she reached up to play with a necklace that was no longer there. Trixie, of course, noticed immediately.

"You're not wearing your necklace either. Don't… don't you love Lucifer anymore?"

Chloe blinked in surprise. Was it that obvious, that she loved him? Because of course she did. She'd known just how much she loved him from the moment she overheard how he felt about her in return. But that had been a love for the person she thought he was. A person who in reality, she barely even knew. It was impossible to claim that she knew who he was, when there was this whole other side of himself that he'd kept hidden.

Wasn't it?

"He's still Lucifer, Mommy. And Maze is still Maze. Nothing's changed."

Those big brown eyes of her daughter's, the ones that had so often been her downfall, bored into hers with a truth that was impossible to ignore. For what had changed, really, other than her worldview? Which, while no small thing, didn't alter the fact that the man she loved was waiting for her on the other side of the world, his only concern being whether she was okay. The rational side of her knew, had always known, that the evidence Father Kinley presented her with could hardly be classed as proof, but the fear that had gripped her so tightly since that day had forced her to see it as so.

But with every breath, she felt it start to lose its hold.

Tears filled her eyes as her daughter, who had somehow grown so wise without her even noticing, ran her finger over where Lucifer's ring should be.

"He loves you very much. He has for ages."

Chloe smiled; her first real smile since they arrived in this place.

"Oh really? And how do you know that?"

Trixie rolled her eyes, and she couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. Lucifer was right, she was her mother's daughter indeed.

"Well duh. You didn't know he was the Devil either… are you sure you're a detective, Mommy?"

No amount of pleading brown eyes was going to get her out of that one. Her arms outstretched, she slid around to the other side of the booth, delighting in the squeal Trixie made as she leapt up from the table and ran towards the door, in full retreat from the oncoming tickle attack. Chloe swept up their things before taking after her, a lightness in her heart that she hadn't felt in weeks. Together the pair made their way back to their hotel, their laughter filling the street which suddenly seemed all that much brighter, as if it were only now that Chloe had finally opened her eyes.

The first thing she did when they got back to their room was to find that beautiful ring that she had once sworn she would never take off, and make that promise again, To herself, to her daughter, and to Lucifer.

For this ring, it wasn't a symbol of lies after all. It was the purest truth, a symbol of love, of _family._

A family she needed to return to.

A family she needed to find a way to move forward with.

It was time to go home.


End file.
